A beloved British children’s book, crafted for the big screen by Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli, and now redubbed from British English to something blander for North American audiences, The Secret World of Arrietty takes a circuitous to movie houses.

Following the 2009 release of Ghibli’s wonderful animation about a goldfish princess, Ponyo, and last year’s success with Winnie the Pooh, Disney brings another hand-drawn animation to new generation of young fans. Gorgeous, painterly colours and rich tones are used in this adventure about a family of borrowers, 10-centimetre-tall “little people” who take risky expeditions to the big, bad world populated by human “beans” (that’s us).

Based on Mary Norton’s 1952 children’s novel The Borrowers, Arrietty opened in Japan in 2010, rolling out in European markets with different voice casts and finally opening here, destined to be a crossover title for the legendary Japanese animation house that made Spirited Away and Ponyo.

Feisty Arrietty Clock’s tiny world is endlessly charming. Kids will love playing I Spy with the curious way everyday items from the beans’ world become huge and helpful in the wee home Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) and her parents inhabit beneath the floor of an unused wardrobe in a rural house.

Nightly forays into the gigantic land of the beans above them net the borrowers items like a sugar cube that can sweeten their tea for a month, or a sewing pin that makes an elegant sword. And a trip to the garden, a glorious, colour-drenched world, yields blossoms and brilliant green leaves that turn Arrietty’s bedroom into Titania’s bower.

At age 14, confident Arrietty is anxious to go out on a borrowing expedition with her adventurer dad, Pod (Will Arnett), although her constantly catastrophizing mom Homily (Amy Poehler) sees only disaster ahead. Arrietty is a dutiful daughter, but sometimes too curious for her own good. Her parents warn her repeatedly to never let the beans see them. Discovery means disaster.

But when Shawn (David Henrie), a sickly boy about her age, arrives at the house to convalesce, Arrietty lets her curiosity get the better of her.

Comic relief comes from bossy housekeeper Hara (Carol Burnett) who is desperate to prove the existence of the little people she’s been hearing about since childhood. If only she could catch one!

Although Arrietty has been tailored for a Western audience, make no mistake; this is still anime with its baby-seal-eyed heroes and stilted dialogue heavy on grunts and exclamations. Everything has a wash of fantasy to it. This has its own charm, but may not be to everyone’s taste.

Purists will argue the Americanization of Arrietty waters down Ghibli’s unique vision, while those who are only used to the sharp-edged world of computer-generated animation may find it lacks something. But give it a try. Arrietty offers an opportunity to be carried away by a whimsical adventure, set to a lovely score by French musician Cécile Corbel. It’s romantic in the truest sense of the word, with a strong-willed heroine determined to save her people. And a bit of romance this time of year seems somehow fitting, even in a cartoon garden.

What is Studio Ghibli?

Award-winning Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli has a signature look that is instantly recognizable — and it’s clearly not the Disney Pixar style that virtually all kids here have grown up with.

Ghibli was founded in 1986 by longtime Japanese animation directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki. The studio’s Spirited Away, written and directed by Miyazaki, won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2003.

Ghibli’s signature style is one of heightened naturalism as flowers nod in the breeze and a cat’s fur ripples as he moves. Colours are beautiful but muted, like a watercolour painting, unlike the sharply brilliant and often shiny look of Disney. Close-ups are often used on the liquid-eyed characters, who can react with wide eyes, gasps, grunts and exuberant overacting — there’s not much subtlety to a Ghibli animated cast. But that gives them a charm all their own.

While animation fans endlessly argue the merits of one over another, I find both entertaining and can watch Ghibli’s Ponyo or Pixar’s WALL-E over and over with delight. And Disney appreciates Ghibli’s appeal. The mouse house distributes the studio’s titles outside Japan for theatrical and home-video release.

Want to see more? TIFF Bell Lightbox presents a retrospective devoted to Studio Ghibli fom March 10 to April 13 featuring newly struck 35mm prints and 15 of the studio's most beloved films, including Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Ponyo, plus rarely seen titles Only Yesterday and The Ocean Waves.

Linda Barnard

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